Seven week season

You're right Cleveland didnt beat Pittsburgh last year, but were in a position where a defensive stop here, an allowed punt return late in the 4th quarter there (has anyone seen any actual Dinkins hold on THAT play?) and the Browns 160 yards of O was enough to win.  And the Browns are capable of gaining a ton of ST yards in any game, so that IS a legitimate weapon and should not be construed as just luck, ST yards count too.

As for the debatable week 2 buzz-saw, I think the Browns will be absolutely prepared to show they belong with and are better than their big bad rivals from Pittsburgh.  I also think Cleveland is at home (7-1 in 07 and yes I know who gave them the "1"), they have improved their front 7 on D and will be more fluent on O- all stuff Pittsburgh will not be fully prepared for.  We are not the "new bully on the block" yet, but the Browns want to be, and will be eager to knock the Squeelers of the top of the hill.

Similar yes. The same? No. We faced the 11-5 Jags. You faced the 8-8 Texans. We faced the 7-9 Broncos. You faced the 4-12 Raiders.

I know you guys turn your noses up everytime I mention this but we were 9-3 when we got hit by the injury bug. We had several key starters out the final 6 weeks including both starting safeties and our best D-linemen. We lost our LT, and then our backup LT. We lost our RB who was leading the NFL in rushing.

Against the Patriots it's a 4 pt game at halftime with both safeties and Aaron Smith (2nd half) out of the lineup. Then Brady lights Anthony Smith up in the second half and after a goal line stand it ends up a blowout.

If you guys lost Joe Thomas, Jamal Lewis, Sean Jones, Robaire Smith and Brodney Pool at the end of last year you lose games. That's just being realistic. The reason players are backups is because they're not as good as the guys in front of them. You had an incredibly healthy season last year and you know it. Call me out for bringing up our injuries if you like but backups aren't as good as starters and teams with backups at several key positions will not win as many games. That's not rocket science.

And would it kill you guys to acknowledge that we gave the game to the Ravens Week 17? If we had to be 11-5 you can bet we would have been 11-5. We cleaned their clock at our place and they weren't any better at the end of the year. They're losing streak was at 9 at that point including a loss to the dolphins week 15.